Ortiz, Red Sox not in same ballpark on contract dollars

Tuesday

The Ortiz case will have an impact on the Red Sox payroll in some fashion because the veteran had filed a figure of $16.5 million, while the Red Sox have offered $12.65 million.

While ‘t’s’ have been crossed and ‘i’s’ dotted through the major leagues as spring training nears in just a couple of weeks, Red Sox GM Ben Cherington finds himself in need of a sharp pencil and a calculator.

Cherington’s Red Sox roster may be near completion, but he’s continuing his work in trying to reach a deal with designated hitter David Ortiz, who has accepted arbitration. Cherington also doesn’t know the salary of one other Sox player, Alfredo Aceves.

The Ortiz case will have an impact on the Red Sox payroll in some fashion because the veteran had filed a figure of $16.5 million, while the Red Sox have offered $12.65 million– a wide margin. Should the two sides actually undergo a hearing – something the Red Sox haven't done since 2002 – an arbiter would have to decide on one figure or the other. Given Ortiz’s strong production last season, he isn’t likely to be given a mere $150,000 raise from last season.

That leaves the two sides scrambling to come to a resolution in the form of a likely two-year deal.

“We’ve had continued dialogue with both guys,” said Cherington, speaking at the Hot Stove Cool Music Roundtable event at Fenway Park. “Couldn’t handicap it right now. We’re just going to prepare for the case. We’re a team that will continue to talk right up until the hearing so we’ll see what happens up until then, but whenever you get past exchange you have to at least prepare to go to hearing and that’s what we’re doing.”

The danger seems to be, especially in Ortiz’s case, that there could be some hard feelings as the season progresses, but Cherington doesn’t see it that way. “Sure… if you got to a hearing, there’s a chance you win, there’s a chance you lose and the outcome changes your payroll to some degree, so to that extent it affects things a little bit but I wouldn’t say it’s significant.”

Cherington spoke prior to taking part in a panel along with two fellow general managers – Pittsburgh’s Neal Huntington and the Chicago Cubs’ Theo Epstein, one of the Founders of Boston’s Foundation to Be Named Later, the beneficiary of the event, which also included panelists Bobby Valentine, MLB TV analyst Sean Casey and Yankees outfielder Curtis Granderson.

Not surprisingly, neither Cherington nor Epstein were at each other’s throats over the continuing compensation issue remaining between the two clubs. That issue has reportedly been turned over the MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, but there has yet to be a resolution. “Seems like it should be coming to an end sometime soon,” said Epstein.

The close friends did talk about it, however. “Just a disagreement,” Cherington said. “I don’t’ know what the resolution is going to be and I don’t know what the sort of mechanism will be for resolving it. The commissioner has been involved.”

Both Cherington and Valentine addressed the issue of competition in spring training, noteworthy because the club signed right-handed bat Cody Ross last week. The former Giant could be in competition with newly acquired Ryan Sweeney, or they could platoon. At any rate, they might each have steady work as Carl Crawford rehabs from mid-January wrist surgery.

“We wanted to add little bit more right-hand balance to the lineup and Ross is a guy we had targeted early in the offseason,” Cherington said. “He’s always a guy that we had interest in back to when he was with the Marlins. We think he’s a good fit for the park, a good fit on the team and the clubhouse, can play all three outfield positions.”

Cherington did say of Crawford, “We believe he’s going to be back, if not on opening day, very early in the season. But Cody certainly gives us a little bit more protection in the outfield in the event that Carl misses the first part of the season.”

As for platooning, both in the outfield and perhaps at shortstop, where the Sox have Nick Punto and Mike Aviles, Valentine didn’t want to commit. “If I had a preconceived notion about what would really happen, then why would we even go to spring training?” he said.

Cherington also confirmed that the Sox had signed veteran right-hander John Maine to a minor league deal, to see if he can relieve. “We’ve just got to see what we have in spring training.”

Mike Fine may be reached at mikefine@ledger.com.

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